Scriptural Mormonism: Aren M. Wilson-Wright on 1QHodayota (1QHa) from Qumran and the Reading of "sons of God" in Deuteronomy 32:8 and 4Deutj

Saturday, March 15, 2025

Aren M. Wilson-Wright on 1QHodayota (1QHa) from Qumran and the Reading of "sons of God" in Deuteronomy 32:8 and 4Deutj

1QH^a xxiv 10-13 from Qumran reads:

10 […]עבדתה מבני

11 אל …[…]עולות עמים

12 לחזקם […]רבות אשמה

13 בנחלתו […]עזבתם ביד

Commenting on this text and how it supports the reading of “sons of God” in Deut 32:8 and 4QDeut^j, Aren M. Wilson-Wright wrote that:

The reading *bənê ʾēl also receives support from 1QH^a xxiv 10A, a liturgical text from Qumran that alludes to Deut 32:8 and appears to preserve the preferred reading: “[You] are more honored than the children of El [… you fixed the b]oundaries of the peoples to strengthen them […] so that guilt will (not?) increase in his inheritance” (n]⸢k⸣bdth mbny / ʾl š⸢w⸣[… hṣbth g]⸢b⸣wlwt ʿmym / lḥzqm [… l]⸢h⸣rbwt ʾšmh / bnḥltw). (Aren M. Wilson-Wright, “Yahweh’s Kin: A Comparative Linguistics and Mythological Analysis of ‘The Children of God’ in the Hebrew Bible,” in Where Is the Way to the Dwelling of Light? Studies in Genesis, Job and Linguistics in Honor of Ellen van Wolde, ed. Pierre Van Hecke and Hanneke van Lon [Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2023], 42)